


Little Plague

by WoffWoff



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, like a bad flu, no one dies it's not that serious, sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 14:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1350919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoffWoff/pseuds/WoffWoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First it was coughing and sneezing, then cold sweats and sore throats, to the point where some couldn't eat. Aching limbs made them unable to practice, sore eyes made them sensitive to light so they stayed indoors, and pounding headaches made it impossible to talk barely above a whisper around them. It was terrible, and Shadis quarantined the victims to a temporary tent house, while assigning drills to keep the others busy and away from the sick.</p>
<p>But some found time to pay their friends visits.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, this is my first contribution to the fandom and it's not even my best but, uh. Yeah, I hope you all like it. ;o;
> 
> There might be more, I don't know where to take this.

    It came so suddenly. First it hit Armin-- everyone just assumed it was because of the drills they ran in the rain, and Armin being so physically unguarded, he'd easily catch a cold. He was taken care of and it was forgotten. Until Connie started coughing and sneezing all over Sasha during combat training. A nurse was called up to the barracks when five kids were rendered bedridden with the spreading "Little Plague."

  
First it was coughing and sneezing, then cold sweats and sore throats, to the point where some couldn't eat. Aching limbs made them unable to practice, sore eyes made them sensitive to light so they stayed indoors, and pounding headaches made it impossible to talk barely above a whisper around them. It was terrible, and Shadis quarantined the victims to a temporary tent house, while assigning drills to keep the others busy and away from the sick.

  
But some found time to pay their friends visits.

 

  
Jean was going up to see Marco one afternoon, trudging up the hill and through the woods, from his bunker to the tent. He didn't know what he would say to the kid, but he thought it'd be nice to at least see him and let him know someone was hoping he was alright.

  
When he arrived at the site, he found Ymir, Bert, and Reiner already sitting outside the tent. He walked towards them and sat down in front of them. Reiner nodded at him in acknowledgement.

"What's going on?" Jean thought the nurse might be in there cleaning or giving the sick kids medicine. That must be why they're all sitting outside instead of being in there.

"Nurse just fed them all they could swallow," Reiner spoke first, voice steady. "Asked us if we could give them a little time."

"Oh..." Jean began to absentmindedly tear pieces of grass from the Earth. "How much is 'a little time'?" Reiner shrugged and Jean nodded. "So who's in there for you?"

"Annie. She's like a sister to me." Reiner smiled, but beside him, Bert looked like he'd contracted the Little Plague himself.

"Didn't think she could get sick, you know. We wanted to go in and say hi, but like I said, the nurse...Ymir?"

"Christa's in there." The girl pushed her long hair out of her eyes and looked at all of them. "I wish I could be in there with her. I could take care of her."

Reiner snorted. "We all know you ain't a nurse. The tending to her you're interested in sure isn't medical." He laughed when Ymir smacked his nearest shoulder. "So, Jean, who are you here to see? I don't know how close you are to Connie or Sasha."

Jean scratched his neck. "We're ok, and I should say something to them too, but that's not who I came to see."

"You're here for Marco, then?" Ymir asked before Reiner.

"Yeah," Jean looked down and started uprooting small families of grass at a time. He wasn't sure why he didn't want to look back up at them, but he needed a distraction. "Yeah, I wanna see Marco."


	2. ow my back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, huh, so I couldn't really imagine there being more to this, so there's only two chapters! I guess I can't write too much about a lil flu.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy it, anyways! <3

          It was still a few days before anyone was allowed into the tents. Shadis had called for the medical input of higher professionals, and the cadets were able to glance up during any time of the day and see a doctor moving about the grounds. They could sometimes be seen in the mess hall occupying a table all their own, comparing records. Eventually, it was decided the sick soldiers didn't need to be moved to a hospital, and that the infected had begun to show signs of improvement.

 

          Jean had been up to see Marco a few times since, but he'd be sleeping, so Jean would move on to go say hello to Connie, Sasha, or Annie. He'd attempted to wish good health to Christa but Ymir had shooed him away, believing he'd stayed too long and was keeping her from resting.

 

          Annie was the first to return from the infirmary. Her first night back in the mess hall, she took her place between Reiner and Bert, sitting across from Armin and Jean.

"How are you feeling, Annie?" Armin rested his elbows on the table and folded his arms.

Annie nodded. "Better." She didn't move to touch her food, but looked past Armin. Jean and Armin turned to see Mikasa and Eren approaching the table, trays in hand. Mikasa seemed to ignore her brother's irritated face as she spoke to him and as he sat down next to Armin, he cut her off with a gruff hello to his best friend. Mikasa just glared at him and started on her dinner.

Reiner spoke up. "Hey Jean, you been to see Marco lately?"

Jean nodded. "He's been sleeping, though."

"He was awake when I got out today." Annie started cutting up the pulled pork on her plate. She noticed that Eren had taken to simply folding the slices and stuffing them in his mouth with his hands. "You could go see him now. The nurse should have left."

Armin craned his neck to see back into the serving hall. "Hey Jean, there's still soup up there. You could bring Marco some."

Jean liked that idea.

 

           The soup truly was a sweet gesture on Armin's part, but now Jean was regretting it because the walk up to the sick tents seemed much longer with a bowl filled to the brim of hot contents. He managed to spill some and deplete the amount noticeably, and also burned his fingers on the broth. Yeah, the soup was actually a shitty idea.

"Oi, Marco?" Jean ducked into his friend's tent and looked over at his cot. Marco was there, and he was laughing with Christa, who was seated at the end of his bed. Marco was shirtless. Probably to help with the fever. But he was shirtless. When they turned around to face him, Jean felt bad for walking in. "Oh, I can wait, I just-"

"No, no!" Christa, inclusive as always, waved him over. She grinned at Marco. "Looks like Jean's brought you something, too."

Marco sat up straighter in his bed, fixing his pillows behind him. "Really now?"

"It's just soup." Jean took the chair beside the bed, balancing the bowl in one hand as he turned the chair backwards to sit down. "Armin thought you'd like it."

Once Marco was comfortable, he held out his hands for the bowl. "Right as always, that Arlert. I can smell it's got some flavor to it. The nurse has been real generous with soup, but the medical soup don't taste too good." He glanced up at Jean.

When his gaze lingered, Jean started picking at his pants nervously. "What?"

"Oh! Sorry, thank you." He reached out and grabbed a spoon off the bedside table. "For bringing this up, I really appreciate it." Jean didn't know what to say. Christa started conversation again, but Jean wasn't listening and let those two talk. He noticed he was staring as Marco was eating and kicked himself for being weird, averting his eyes. He didn't know how much time he spent trying not to look at Marco or trying to say something but deciding it sounded stupid. He found himself frequently wishing he'd just left after giving Marco the soup.

"Christa!" A voice made them all snap their heads up to the tent opening.

Christa laughed a little bit. "Sorry guys, that's just Ymir."

"Aye, _Christa!_ " Ymir ducked into the tent. When she saw the tree of them gathered around, she lowered her voice. "When'd you get released?"

"Just today, actually!" She jumped up and joined Ymir at her side. The taller girl took her hand. "I came to talk to Marco before leaving but stayed a little longer than I thought I would."

Marco smiled. "Thank you, Christa."

Ymir raised her eyebrows. "Marco, hey, feel better."

"I will, thanks, Ymir."

Christa looked at Jean. "You staying?" He nodded. "Okay, goodnight, the both of you!"

The boys watched them leave. Marco set his bowl aside on the table and adjusted his pillows again. He sat back, crossing his arms over his chest with a wince.

"Are you okay?" Jean's brows furrowed.

Marco grimaced as he shifted to try and get comfortable. "Yeah, it's just...the being sick part is gone, I still have sore muscle symptoms. Hurts to move sometimes." He caught Jean's worried expression. "Don't look so concerned, I'll be okay!"

"Can I help? Somehow?" Jean didn't know why he didn't just leave when Christa and Ymir did. He wasn't going to be able to help Marco; he couldn't even carry up the soup without dropping it.

"You..." Marco rolled his shoulders before shaking his head. "Don't worry about it, Jean."

"Where's it hurt?" Jean stood, removing his jacket and draping it over the guest chair.

"Hm?" Marco looked up at him nervously. "Like, my back and-- why, what are you doing?"

Shrugging with one shoulder, Jean answered simply, "a massage might help. I was gonna do that."

" _Oh_ , uh..." Marco turned over onto his stomach with a pained grunt, hugging one of his pillows. "My shoulders and my back...that's where it hurts the most. I can barely sleep sometimes." Jean couldn't see it, but Marco then buried his mouth into the pillow and closed his eyes. Jean leaned over the side of Marco's bed and pressed the heels of his palms into Marco's freckled shoulders.

He flattened his palms out onto the skin and rubbed in circles. "Does that hurt?"

"Yeah-"

" _Yeah?_ " Jean immediately stopped.

"I mean at first, but they're sore, you know?" Marco turned his head. "But it was getting better, you were doing it right."

"I don't know _what_ I'm doing," Jean muttered, proceeding to work at Marco's back with his hands again. He found a particularly tight area close to Marco's side. It seemed like there was something like...like a knot there, it was just tough. At the touch, Marco took in his breath with a hiss.

"Okay, yeah, _that's_ a problem." He winced and gripped his pillow. "I don't sleep on my side cause of that part."

"You want me to...try to..." Jean was getting nervous. He didn't want to hurt the other boy.

"Um...yes, I think so." Marco groaned. "If you can fix that, I'd be really grateful."

Jean carefully kneaded at the area, trying not to pay too much attention to the tenacity of Marco's hold on his pillows. He was actually reminded of when he was younger, some day when he ran out to play and found a mother cat and her babies not far from his house. He'd watched as the kittens prodded at her stomach. He wondered for a second if he looked like that. Maybe he would if he were massaging Marco's stomach. But that would be weird.

"Oh, thank _fuck_."

Jean was snapped out of his memories and daydreaming. He'd nearly forgotten what he was doing. He looked down at Marco, and was surprised to see him looking much less tense than when he started. "Marco?"

He hummed a yes before turning over slowly. He was grinning up at Jean and laughing. "I can't believe you did that, and it worked!" He sat up excitedly, pushing his pillows behind him. "Maybe you should reconsider your career as soldier after training," his voice adopted that light joking intonation. "Go into the medical field instead."

Jean found himself once again staring back at Marco but unable to respond, not even laughing at the small joke. He just scratched the back of his head and smiled. Marco's laughter trailed off into yawn, and he moved to lie back down but stopped himself. He looked back up at Jean.

"Thank you. You didn't have to do that, but I really appreciated it."

Now, for some reason, Jean was really unable to speak. He shrugged and managed to say, "Just wanted to help." He picked up his jacket and crossed to the tent's opening. "You should get some sleep."

Marco didn't seem to be able to stop smiling. He ducked his head. "Well, I can finally do that now, thanks to you."

"I'll," Jean cleared his throat because it nearly shot itself out when he caught sight of Marco's smile. "I'll see you tomorrow. Feel better, Marco."


End file.
